Star recruit hears lots of Kentucky bashing

SUWANEE, Ga. — If five-star Marietta, Ga., small forward Jaylen Brown decides to play basketball at the University of Kentucky, he knows plenty of people won't agree with the decision.

"Some people just don't like Kentucky," Brown, one of the Wildcats' top targets in the 2015 class, said Wednesday night. "Family members come up to me and say, 'You can go anywhere, but don't go to Kentucky.' And I ask them why, and they say, 'I just don't like it. I don't like the environment, and them boys are shady or whatever.'

"There's no reasoning behind it. It's just how they feel."

The good news for UK fans is that Brown doesn't believe the negative chatter he hears about coach John Calipari's program. After UK assistant John Robic watched his game on Wednesday night in the Under Armour National Showcase, Brown said he plans to visit Lexington in the coming months, and the Cats appear as well-positioned as any team to get him.

But Brown said for some reason people he encounters in his life have "a lot of misconceptions about Kentucky."

It's common, he said, that people will tell him, "Those boys up there (at UK) don't go to school, don't go to class. All they care about is basketball up there. It's not about education.

"And it's not true," Brown added. "Everybody there does their work just like everybody else in college."

So why does Brown think that people dislike UK?

"I have no idea, maybe because Coach Calipari wins so much or because Coach Cal got in trouble before or … I don't know," he said. "Who knows?"

Brown pointed out that the negative messages about UK are not coming from other college coaches, who for the most part only sell the positive aspects of their own programs. Occasionally he'll hear a coach suggest that if he goes to college far from home his family won't get to see his games or that he'd get more immediate playing time at that coach's school than if he went to a place like UK.

Whichever college gets Brown will have a force to be reckoned with on the wing. He's one of the nation's most rugged and athletic wings, but he's also a good shooter and ballhandler.

With Brown's strong travel season, he's ascended all the way to the No. 2 national ranking by 247Sports.com. But Brown "absolutely" thinks he should be No. 1.

He said only five-star power forward/LSU commitment Ben Simmons, who does happen to be No. 1 by 247 and Rivals.com, is possibly worthy of the top spot over him.

"I feel like I've got a lot to work on still, but in my eyes, there's no one better (than me)," Brown said. "There's a lot of good guys that I give a lot of respect to, but I still don't feel like they can do what I can do on the floor."

It could be in the next few months that the world knows where he'll take those talents.

Brown repeated Wednesday night what he said this spring: that he's grown weary of the grind of the recruiting process — with countless calls and text messages from coaches — and that may hasten his college decision.

"I'm tired," he said. "It's a blessing and a curse at the same time. I know a lot of people would like to be in my position, so I've just got to make the most of it and make my family proud and the people close to me proud."

He plans to cut his list to about 10 at the end of the summer, trim it to three by the start of basketball season and then commit in time for the November signing period.

Brown mentioned UCLA, UK, Georgia Tech, Georgia, Ohio State, Kansas, Florida and Arizona as some of the teams in the running. He has one unofficial visit planned — to UCLA the last week of July or first week of August while he is in Southern California for the Adidas Nations camp.

Brown wants to visit UK and Kansas officially in August or September as well. He said his initial plan is to take all five of his allotted official visits, but he won't stick to that if he finds a school he likes before he's gone on every trip.

Steve Jones can be reached at (502) 582-7176 and followed on Twitter at @SteveJones_CJ.